Here are some news items which have come to our attention in the last few days:

FARAH, SUHR AND UCENY TO COMPETE AT NEW BALANCE INDOOR GRAND PRIX

Three athletes ranked #1 in their events by Track & Field News for 2011 have committed to the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 4. Britain’s Mo Farah, the 5000m world champion and 10,000m runner-up, will run the mile, while Jenn Suhr will compete in the pole vault, and Morgan Uceny in the 1000m. There is an excellent chance for each athlete to chalk up indoor personal bests for each discipline. Farah’s best indoor mile is 4:00.46, although he’s run 3:56.49 outdoors. Suhr’s indoor best is 4.86m (she’s vaulted 4.92m outdoors), and Uceny’s best indoor mark at 1000m is 2:40.07 (she’s never competed at 1000m outdoors, according to the statistics service Tilastopaja.net). Tickets and meet Information can be found on-line at www.nbindoorgrandprix.com or by calling 1-877-TIX-TRAC.

The New York Road Runners announced today that requests for entry for the 2012 ING New York City Marathon reached record levels on the opening day of registration yesterday, despite higher entry fees made necessary by increased police costs. In the first 24 hours, 28,000 people submitted their names with the hope of being selected in one of three drawings for entries. Runners from all 50 states (and Washington, D.C.) and 134 countries already announced their intention to take part in the 2012 race, the Road Runners said, and each applicant has between an 8 and 12% chance of being selected. Each applicant was charged $11 to enter the drawing pool and will be charged between $216 (New York Road Runners members) and $347 (non-U.S. residents) if they are selected for entry. “The record-setting day for the marathon application continues to show the power of the marathon,” said NYRR president and CEO Mary Wittenberg in a statement. “As runners all over the world sign up and ‘run to keep their resolution,’ we are happy that NYRR can support their goals.”

CENTROWITZ SPEAKS OUT

Matthew Centrowitz, the 2011 World Championships 1500m bronze medalist, gave a lenghty video interview to ArmoryTrack.com yesterday before he worked out on the Armory’s 200m banked Mondo track. He was later joined in the interview by his father, Matt Sr., and his sister Lauren. The first installment of these interviews, which includes footage of Centrowitz training, is posted here: http://www.armorytrack.com/

TOYO UNIVERSITY SETS HAKONE EKIDEN RECORD

The two-day Hakone Ekiden in Japan ended today with Toyo University getting the win and setting a new event record of 10 hours 51 minutes and 36 seconds. Last year’s champion, Waseda University, finished fourth. Toyo athletes ran the fastest times for six of the ten stages, and won by a whopping nine minutes over second place Komazawa University. The annual 217.9-kilometer ekiden determines which Japanese collegiate team has the best ekiden squad in the country.

Duncan Larkin

Duncan Larkin is a freelance journalist and author who’s been covering the sport of running for over a decade. He’s run 2:32 in the marathon and won the Himalayan 100-Mile Stage Race in 2007. He wrote the book RUN SIMPLE, and coaches runners of all abilities.
You can learn more about him here: http://roadsmillslaps.tumblr.com/about